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Episode 1571 (5 February 1998)
Synopsis It's the crack of dawn in Albert Square, and Pat is chasing Roy who has gone to work without his delicious muesli and yoghurt breakfast. She takes Ben with her to return him to Kathy, and bumps into Ian who asks about him. Pat says that Kathy had errr something to do. Pat tries to persuade Roy to eat his horrible healthy stuff, and when she's gone he takes out the half-finished bar of chocolate instead. Meanwhile, at Alex's house, Kathy is sneaking out under cover of darkness. Alex tries to stop Kathy rushing off, saying they need to talk, but she refuses and leaves looking guilty again. The Gazette is again the subject of much merriment as everyone giggles over Alex's description of some anonymous businessman as a pig in a trough. Ian asks Mary what it's about, saying he could do with a laugh, and they show him the letter. He is furious, and bumps into Annie, who says she'll exert a bit of pressure. Grant sees Alex in the Square and waves the Gazette and cheerfully advises him to keep his head down, as it looks like World War three is about to erupt. Alex goes to the café and asks Kathy to talk. She refuses to say anything in the busy café, but says she will talk later. Annie corners George about the Di Marcos' involvement in the restaurant. She says that it might be a bit tricky to launder money through a restaurant run by a policeman's family. George says they won't - this is a strictly legitimate business. Annie is annoyed at this, and George says she will just have to make other arrangements. Annie clarifies the exact business deal - that George is giving the Di Marcos a restaurant and a house for nothing. She moans that she's had to work hard for everything and asks if it's a payback or if one of the family knows something and is putting pressure on George. He says it's just straightforward, but later Beppe arrives to have a discussion, because he can't believe it either. He asks to see the site for the restaurant and the house, and George says it's 89 George Street. Beppe says dryly, so they're even naming the roads after you now. He asks George whether he will be expecting something in return for this deal - because there are still police officers who do deals, but he is not one of them. Beppe wants to make absolutely sure that he will not be compromised by George, and George says that he is totally legitimate now, and Beppe can go through his businesses with a nitcomb if he likes. Beppe replies that he might just do that. Ruth and Mark have a plaintive discussion with the social worker, with Mark whining continually about Nicole taking Jesse back, and the social worker points out repeatedly that this is the entire point of fostering - to let the parent sort themselves out and then to hand the kids back. He reminds Mark of the original training. Afterwards, Mark whinges to Ruth that the social worker is taking Nicole's side. Dot tells Ian that the General Synod would have 50 fits if they knew what Alex was up to, and Ian is finally tempted to insist she explain all her mysterious comments. He asks her if he's misappropriating the collection fund, and Dot says it's much worse than that, he is seeing someone he shouldn't be seeing. Ian says it's Dot's duty to tell him any wrong-doings, as it could be useful in the campaign, but Dot says it's all too embarrassing. She says it will ruin the reputation of All Saints church, but worse than that it is personally embarrassing. Ian asks for whom, and Dot says for him. Ian says that's impossible, but then twigs! "Do you mean my mother and the vicar! I don't believe it, it's ridiculous." Dot looks knowing, and Ian puts two and two together remembering his meeting with Pat this morning. Back in the café, Pat wants to hear all about Kathy's evening, and Kathy lies hastily, saying that she never went to see Phil at all, she thought better of it, and.....just had a quiet night in, and she apologises for not collecting Ben from Pat. Pat says it probably did her good to have a quiet night by herself, and one can't quite tell if she's being slightly sarcastic and doesn't believe a word of what Kathy's just said. Cindy turns up at Ian's and laughs at him for the news items, saying the court will be very interested in him being attacked publicly by a vicar. Ian says it's hardly as bad as kidnapping children, and Cindy says that's in the past, this is news. She arranges to collect the kids for the weekend. Ian confronts Kathy at home. He shows her the paper, and she is revealingly ambivalent and says that he started it, so what does he expect. Ian closes the trap, saying that he would have thought that she'd be up in arms by now if someone had attacked her son like this, but perhaps she has divided loyalties? She looks exceptionally guilty, and he says so it is true then, Dot told me. Kathy says she might have known the nosey bat would have seen her this morning. Ian says triumphantly, well actually she saw you in church last week, and I put two and two together about last night. Ian adds that Cindy is going to have a field day about the scandal of both the newspaper feud and when people find out she's having an affair with him. Phil sees Kathy and tells her next time at least have the decency to call to say she couldn't make it. Kathy sees Dot and tells her she shouldn't spread rumours. Dot says she hasn't and only told Ian because he badgered it out of her, and in any case, it's truth, because she saw them. Kathy asks what she saw, and Dot says she won't spell it out, but she saw her and Alex in church. Kathy says she has got it wrong and he was just giving her a hug because she was upset, and anyway what business is it of Dot's? Dot replies that it is very much her business because he is her vicar, and it's also the business of every other parishioner, and admonishes Kathy you don't just take on the man with people like that. Ian's column appears to be on, because when Polly asks Max again, he tells her that he has been bombarded with phone calls from restaurants, asking for extra advertising space on the weeks they are featured in the column. He says he can't afford to turn it down, and Polly says it's even more obvious from this that Ian and the Palmers have been canvassing the local businesses and arranged this. Max counter-attacks, saying that Polly is only this upset because it's Ian, and she is letting her personal dislike for him affect her professional judgement. She leaves, furiously. Later Max buys her a drink as a peace offering, and says it's ironic that she claims it's on principle that she objects when she's never had many herself when chasing stories. Mark goes out with Sanjay, to cheer him up, and Ruth is in baby-sitting. Conor is supposed to be out with Mary, but he says she had another, younger and better looking offer instead. He says he could have stayed in and Ruth could go for a drink with Mark and Sanjay. She says she won't bother, she prefers looking after Jessie. Conor says is that because you might not have her much longer? Ruth, who is being very miserly and doing a bit of darning, suggests they have a drink here instead of going out, and she opens a bottle of expensive whisky she and Mark had been saving for a special occasion, and she and Conor start drinking heavily and for some reason the lounge is very dimly lit. They sit on the sofa together and Ruth becomes morose and whinges on that she is fed up with looking after kids who really need their mothers, and she thought Mark needed her when she married him but now he's off sorting out other people's problems, and even when she got back from Scotland everything was tidy and it looked like she hadn't been missed. Conor asks her if she'd have preferred to come back to piles of dirty socks, and asks if this was why she married Mark - because she wanted to be needed? She says no, it was because she loved him - loves him. Conor moves much closer to her on the sofa, and asks her what she wants - she is going on about everyone else around her, but she doesn't seem to think about what she wants from life. As they are sitting there cosily close together in the semi-darkness, the light is suddenly turned on and Mark walks in. Ruth jumps up guiltily and says we were just having a drink. Mark picks up the three-quarters empty bottle, and says he thought they were saving it for a special occasion. Ruth gets up sulkily and says that she is spending most of her life waiting for one, and she storms off to bed. Kathy visits Alex, starting off angrily about the letter. She asks why he didn't tell her about it. Very reasonably, he says it is between him and Ian, and nothing to do with her. Kathy tells him that she doesn't like men not telling her things, so Alex apologises and she also mentions that Ian knows about them from Dot, and although she tried to tell Dot she was mistaken, she didn't believe it, so their relationship has to stop. Alex says they never discuss how they feel, and this is exactly what happened yesterday. He tells Kathy that he feels this is the real thing - he really loves her, and he wants to know how she feels about him. She won't say, and just says that it won't work. Kathy says last night was a mistake and the last thing she needs right now is all the hassle of this relationship, or him. She decides to leave, and Alex asks if that is it then, after everything they have done, and she says yes, and leaves him standing forlornly on his doorstep. Credits Main cast *Pat Evans - Pam St. Clement *Roy Evans - Tony Caunter *Kathy Mitchell - Gillian Taylforth *Polly Becker - Victoria Gould *Grant Mitchell - Ross Kemp *Alex Healy - Richard Driscoll *Beppe di Marco - Michael Greco *Conor Flaherty - Seán Gleeson *Ruth Fowler - Caroline Paterson *George Palmer - Paul Moriarty *Ian Beale - Adam Woodyatt *Ben Mitchell - Matthew Silver *Mary Flaherty - Melanie Clark Pullen *Max Townsend - Alan Hunter *Dot Cotton - June Brown *Mark Fowler - Todd Carty *Sanjay Kapoor - Deepak Verma *Annie Palmer - Nadia Sawalha Category:Episode Category:1998 Episodes